Following damage to their mobile home as a result of Hurrican Irma, Tom and Alice Austin moved quickly to fix it. They hired Stephen Parella. While he doesn’t have a license, he came highly recommended.

“We contacted and hired him, and gave him a sizable down payment. We haven’t heard back from him and there doesn’t seem to be a way to contact him,” Austin said.

The couple has a receipt from Parella for the roof and car port repairs. The total to fix it all came to over $4,600. The Austin’s paid him half.

The Austin’s say three other neighbors gave Parella some money, but got no work done. But they’re the ones that gave him over $2,000.

“We don’t want anyone else to have the same type of problem with him. If he wants to come back and finish the work or give us the money back—that would be wonderful,” Austin said.

Helping this couple raise just the money needed for repairs because they live only on Social Security and they haven't asked for help from anyone.